


Red to Blue

by egosoffire



Series: Red to Blue to Black to Gold [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Mouth Sewn Shut, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:56:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26309677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egosoffire/pseuds/egosoffire
Summary: Hela has been defeated and Asgard is poised for recovery, but as Tony aids Thor, they find that she has been keeping her adoptive younger brother as a slave.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark
Series: Red to Blue to Black to Gold [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1911628
Comments: 8
Kudos: 148
Collections: Bad Things Happen





	Red to Blue

“Loki.”

Tony heard Thor’s gasp, but still, it took a moment to register that they were looking at Loki. The god of mischief was on his knees, barely dressed, a black leather collar affixed around his neck. Even through all the chaos, the explosions that still rocked the Asgardian palace, Loki did not look up. 

Thor rushed towards Loki, and Tony looked back and around to guard him. He was in the suit, but he’d raised his visor to look at Loki. Hela was dead, killed in her failed attempt to take Asgard, but she had many loyal to her. Tony felt poised, ready to fire if necessary. 

“Stark, I need help…” 

He went to Thor’s side.

He breathed in sharply as he got a better look at Loki. Lash marks striped his hunched back, and his thin, bruised frame trembled under Thor’s touch. He refused to look at them. 

Thor looked around. Blood stained the bandages covering the left half of his face, but he looked stronger than ever. He looked every bit the king this horrible battle had forced him to be. 

“I need to get things under control,” he told Tony. “Take him to the healers. They have a makeshift infirmary in front of the gardens. Please, help him.” 

Tony acted, lifting Loki into a loose hold, before lifting off the ground, speeding out of the damaged palace and to the outside grounds.

Even as it ravaged the castle grounds, the battle had not harmed the gardens. They were beautiful, lush and filled with colorful blooms that looked like roses, but were clearly from another world. 

They had erected the tent at the end of the garden, fabric and metal twisted into shape.

He entered, Loki in his arms.

The woman who first noticed them was young and pretty. Or, at least, she appeared young. Asgard was strange. Loki lolled backward towards Tony, and that was when Tony noticed the thread. It weaved a path through Loki’s lips, some sort of magical fiber sewn through flesh and blood. The line glowed ominously and panic caught Tony in the chest.

“By the Allfather…” cursed the young woman, before helping Tony lower Loki to the ground. “Let us get this under control.”

Tony watched with horror painted across his face as the woman removed the thread from Loki’s mouth. “This is powerful magic,” she murmured, more to herself than to him. A panic in her eyes let Tony know that she did not understand what she was doing. He got the feeling, one hundred percent. He was in way over his head here too. 

“It’s coming out,” he said, trying to be encouraging.

The silvery thread slowly retreated when the woman pulled. She hissed as if someone had shocked her when she freed it completely. 

“I don’t know what she did to him,” she told Tony, apologetic. “I’ve been a healer for years, but this level of magic…”

“Hey, we’re all trying our best,” Tony reassured. “His back is pretty messed up. Let’s focus on that.”

Relief flooded her eyes, as that seemed to be something she could manage. 

“Help me turn him over.” 

They gently turned Loki around on the cot, so he was on his stomach, the sickening wounds revealed. The marks were deep, stripes that welled with blood. Tony inhaled at the gory sight, and even the healer flinched a little.

As she wiped away the blood to prepare a treatment, something flickered.

Tony noticed it, the tiniest shift in color. The blood turned from a stark red to a deep blue, for just a second. If he had blinked in a different pattern, the change would have been unnoticed entirely.

“Did you see that?”

She shook her head, focusing on cleaning the wounds.

Then, it happened again.

“I saw it,” she murmured, swallowing. “He’s not of this realm. The rumors have swelled around for years, but they’re of no importance right now. It shows us, however, that he’s a very strong magician to hold up such an illusion almost unconsciously…” 

He watched as she soaked a thin cloth in a bowl of shimmering fluid. She laid it over Loki’s wounds, and there were a few more moments of discoloration. 

“Eir!” 

The voice came from across the tent. Another impossibly beautiful woman entered.

“I need your help,” she urged the first girl. “Immediately.” 

“Can you stay with him?” she asked Tony softly. “You can re-soak the cloth when it dries. Don’t let him move too abruptly.”

Tony nodded.

Left alone with Loki, he took some time to examine the man. Although he was not innocent, Loki had suffered deeply in the years since he’d last seen him. It wasn’t just the scars, the wounds either. Tony understood pain, and it wasn’t all physical. Loki murmured soft, nonsensical sounds.

“It’s all right,” Tony said, mostly just to say something. “I’m right here…” 

Loki turned slightly and then gasped, jolting awake. 

Panic sprung across Loki’s face, his dark eyes fluttering past Tony and around the room. His head whipped back and forth and then his eyes landed on Tony. Tony reached out a placating hand.

“Loki…” he said, trying to sound steady. “I’m here. It’s okay. You’re safe…” 

The word safe seemed to register, at least. Loki’s eyes became wider, and he looked at Tony, before forcing himself into a seated position. Tony reached a hand out to steady him, knowing he had to be in pain.

Loki opened his mouth and tried to speak. He lost the words, however; as they dissipated into the air. He mouthed something and Tony understood some of it. 

Stark. Help. Please.

Loki pawed at his throat, looking to Tony desperately.

“I don’t know,” Tony said, laying a hand on Loki’s shoulder. He was trembling. “Your mouth was… sewn shut when we found you.”

As he spoke, Loki remembered.

Tony saw the rage and terror burn in his eyes. His head swerved from side to side and then looked back to Tony.

Tony maneuvered himself so he was directly in front of Loki. He put both hands firmly on his shoulders and met his eyes.

“Loki, stop trying to talk,” he said firmly. “Just take a deep breath, in and out. She’s gone. Thor killed her…”

Relief flashed across Loki’s slackened face. Tears that he was trying to fight brimmed in his eyes, and Tony’s position kept him from being able to brush at them. Tony moved back and Loki furiously tried to keep them from coming down. Tony averted his eyes, not wanting Loki to feel shame or distress over his emotions. After a moment of composing himself, Loki touched Tony’s arm, so that Tony looked at him. 

“Thor?”

He mouthed the word, still unable to speak, but Tony understood. The question was in Loki’s eyes.

“He’s okay,” he assured. “He’s helping with the damages. The battle was…intense.” 

Loki nodded, for a moment, satisfied. 

It took several hours for Thor to arrive. Tony met him at the front of the tent. When he got a good look at Thor, Tony inhaled sharply at the exhaustion radiating off of Thor in waves. He also couldn’t get over the missing eye… Tony wasn’t sure what kept him standing. Maybe it was the godly strength; maybe it was just Thor being Thor. 

“Is Loki okay?” he asked immediately. “Is he…” 

Tony nodded immediately.

“He’s conscious, and we treated his wounds,” he said, holding up a hand to calm his friend. Thor took his hand for a moment and let out a sigh. “He can’t talk yet, though. The thread that she…used on his mouth was… charmed. They’re working to break the spell.” 

He took Thor into the tent, knowing that he needed to see his brother. Loki sat on the cot, looking around like an animal caught in a cage. Tony couldn’t begrudge him the terror, knowing the pain he had been through. His darting eyes locked on Thor and widened considerably.

“Eye.” 

Loki mouthed the word, but some things didn’t require sound.

Thor looked sheepish, a strange anxiety in his expression. 

“Yes,” he mumbled. “I lost it in the battle… She…” 

At the mention of the gods’ sister, quiet fell over everyone. Loki shook his head to end that train of conversation. 

Loki met Thor’s gaze and mouthed something Tony couldn’t see. 

Thor’s smile stretched with pain.

“Yes, I suppose I have taken his role now. Are you…”

Loki nodded sharply.

Tony tried to step aside, to give them some space. After a short time, Thor had to leave, and Loki left the tent, heading outside. Tony wasn’t sure that he should be up and about, so he followed. Loki’s steps were heavy, but he seemed to have healed from the physical wounds. The other wounds… well, he wasn’t sure about that.

He ended up following him to a garden. Despite the massive damage that Asgard had taken, this beautiful garden seemed untouched. 

“Mother.” 

Loki mouthed the word when he turned back to Tony, somehow knowing immediately who it was that had followed him.

“It’s your mother’s.” 

Tony didn’t understand such things, but he could feel an energy thrumming through the small space. It might have been magic, or love, or… something else altogether. Tony let out a small breath and just took that in. Loki reached over and touched the delicate petals of a rose with his shaking fingers.

Tony took Loki’s hand, and he swore that he could see her, the woman that had planted these flowers. Her touch was all over everything. 

Loki looked to him, panic in his eyes, and then Tony found himself transported somewhere else. 

It was like being drawn inside of Loki’s head. One moment he was standing next to the god, and the next he was watching as Hela’s sorcerer, a gruff, thin man, cast the spell that sewed Loki’s mouth shut. 

The prince screamed in agony, twisting in the heavy iron chains that held him. 

“That’s perfect,” the goddess said with a sweeping gesture, laughing as the magic penetrated through his skin repeatedly, sewing the thin, ghostly thread through bleeding punctures until his mouth became a closed door. “He won’t be able to speak again?”

“Well, it’s not permanent, my lady,” said the gaunt Asgardian, submissively. “It will last, however, until an act of goodwill from a warrior allows it. I figured that was the best security given the time frame…” 

“He won’t find any good will here,” Hela laughed. “Oh, that silence is bliss.” 

Tony was immediately jerked out of Loki’s head. The god looked at him with wide, terrified eyes, apologies brimming along with tears. He shook his head over and over and Tony took him into his arms. It was more forceful of a gesture than he would have done otherwise, but Loki needed him. 

“Hey, no, it’s okay. I know you didn’t mean to let me see that.” He thought for a moment about what the sorcerer had said, and an idea popped into his mind. An act of goodwill. The sorcerer who’d cursed Loki hadn’t done so willingly. He had hoped that Hela would be defeated and someone could help Loki.

A warrior.

Tony wasn’t bragging, but he considered himself something of a warrior. 

He leaned over and pressed his lips to Loki’s. The kiss was simple, just a brush of their lips. He brushed Loki’s hair out of his eyes and smiled.

“You’re home. You’re safe. We’ve got you.”

Loki tilted his head to the side, apparent confusion written across his face. Then, his eyes widened.

“Stark?” he whispered.

“Hey, I just kissed you. Let’s go with Tony.”

Loki’s smile was worth everything.

**Author's Note:**

> There will be two more pieces to this. It's a stand-alone but the others will be connected to Tony and Loki's journey.


End file.
